Author and PayPal insider to deliver somber warning at Cato Institute; The Russian Mafia was nothing compared to American regulators"
WASHINGTON, DC (PRWEB) February 15, 2005 -- Author and former PayPal insider Eric M. Jackson has a dire warning for would-be entrepreneurs: the U.S. legal system is out to get you.
Jackson, the author of a critically acclaimed book on the origins of the Internets most popular payment service, will be in the nations capital tomorrow to tell a Cato Institute audience of political leaders, scholars, and journalists that American entrepreneurship is in trouble. In a speech entitled The PayPal Wars and the Battle Against Creative Destruction," Jackson will use PayPals own experiences to make the case that unchecked government regulators coupled with litigation-happy lawyers are stifling innovation and putting American entrepreneurship at risk.
So-called ‘creative destruction—the turbulent act of bringing new innovations to the marketplace—is the engine that drives the American economy," Jackson said. Unfortunately, as Ive seen firsthand, over-zealous regulators like New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and a legal system gone awry have declared war on entrepreneurship."
Jackson previously ran the marketing department of PayPal, an online payment service that now has over 60 million customers and is owned by the auction company eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY). His book, THE PAYPAL WARS: BATTLES WITH EBAY, THE MEDIA, THE MAFIA, AND THE REST OF PLANET EARTH (Sept. 2004, ISBN: 0974670103, World Ahead Publishing, hardback: $27.95 US, www.paypalwars.com), has been hailed as a gripping read by Laissez Faire Books and was honored by USA Book News as one of the top business books in its "Best Books 2004" awards.
THE PAYPAL WARS recounts how PayPal launched its online payment service and set out to revolutionize the world's currency markets. Along the way Jackson and his colleagues survived the dot-com bust and fended off a competitive assault from a number of would-be competitors. But after the startup fought its way to profitability and became the first dot-com to IPO after 9-11, PayPal was nearly buried under an onslaught of regulatory and legal challenges.
We had to ward off tough competitors and even foreign criminals who tried to launder stolen money through PayPal," Jackson remarked, but the Russian Mafia was nothing compared to American regulators and lawyers." Jackson noted that while PayPal was able to produce innovative solutions to fend off its competitors and beat back criminal attacks, the companys entrepreneurs were powerless against bureaucratic and legal bullying.
During the week of PayPals IPO we were hit by a lawsuit from a competitor, threats from an SEC regulator, and a statewide ban by regulators in Louisiana," Jackson recounted. And that was just the beginning! In the next six months our newly profitable company was slapped with a bundle of class action suits, harassed by banking industry lobbyists, and sideswiped by one of Spitzers favorite surprise subpoenas."
Ultimately, PayPals management team had little choice but to sell the company off to eBay," he added.
ABOUT WORLD AHEAD PUBLISHING
World Ahead is a California-based publisher with a growing coterie of authors who advocate individual liberty and free markets. World Ahead believes that freedom is the inalienable right of all human beings but the spread of liberty is by no means a foregone conclusion. To that end, World Ahead seeks to publish thought-provoking books that explore the significant issues facing the nation and the world. To learn more, visit www.worldahead.com.
CONTACT INFORMATION
To interview Eric M. Jackson, contact Susan Otis of Creative Resources at (800) 858-9388.
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